London [UK]: India’s Rohan Bopanna and Australia’s Matthew Ebden reached the men’s quarterfinals at the ongoing Wimbledon championships in London on Tuesday.
As per Olympics.com, they beat David Pel of the Netherlands and USA’s Reese Stalder in their Round of 16 match. Playing on the grass court of All England Club, the Indo-Aussie pair, sixth-seeded, emerged victorious over unseeded Pel and Stalder by 7-5, 4-6, 7(10)-6(5) in two hours and 19 minutes.
Bopanna, the world number 12 in ATP men’s doubles rankings and Ebden, who is world number 16 in the same, put on a disciplined performance in the first set, holding onto their services and after winning a late break in the 11th game, found themselves leading by a set.
The Indo-Aussie duo also started off the second set hot. However, Pel and Stalder broke Bopanna’s serve in the 10th game and won the set. It set up an exciting decider.
The start of the third set was delayed due to rain for more than an hour. But after the resumption, Bopanna-Ebden saved three match points to take the contest into a 10-point tiebreaker.
Pel and Stalder led 3-1 in the tiebreaker. But then Bopanna-Ebden won seven successive points to win the match.
In the quarters, they will take on the Dutch duo of Bart Stevens and Tallon Griekspoor. Earlier in round two, Bopanna-Ebden emerged victorious over the British pair of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday in straight games.
Bopanna has kept the Indian challenge alive at Wimbledon. Men’s doubles pairs of Yuki Bhambri-Saketh Myneni and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan-N Sriram Balaji bowed out of the competition in the first round. Also, Ankita Raina was eliminated in the women’s singles qualifiers.
